Re: Hawai'i Superferry - Chapter 4
Kam, listen to the Supreme Court oral statements from both sides from last week. Then you will understand why the Judge ruled the way he did. The DOT, in order to bring in more revenues in the form of rent on facilities, got into an agreement with HSF to start operation before an EA was done, which was in clear violation of Chapter 343 of the Hawai'i Revised Statutes. In exchange for that exemption from DOT, HSF was able to secure Title XI loan guarantees from MARAD. They also promised the DOT that they would do some sort of EIS once they started operations, and the DOT agreed to that. That is what the judge was concerned about.
I'm still trying to figure out how HSF was able to get the loan guarantee without having to present at least an EA to the feds to prove that they were going to be able to meet any federal environmental regulations; maybe loan guarantees are not the same thing as getting actual money.
In any case, it was a Catch-22 situation for HSF: without the exemption from an EA/EIS from the DOT, HSF could not have gotten the federal loan guarantee, which was for a pretty substantial amount of money.
What's kind of silly about this whole situation is that if the DOT had abided by the Hawai'i Revised Statutes and not exempted HSF, they wouldn't have this TRO thrown in their faces right now and there wouldn't have been all this pilikia.
And I would rather this whole thing be duked out in court than by protesters getting hurt or arrested in nonviolent demonstrations, but some people feel they have no other recourse, and in this democracy they do have a right to speak their own minds.
Miulang
Originally posted by kamuelakea
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I'm still trying to figure out how HSF was able to get the loan guarantee without having to present at least an EA to the feds to prove that they were going to be able to meet any federal environmental regulations; maybe loan guarantees are not the same thing as getting actual money.
In any case, it was a Catch-22 situation for HSF: without the exemption from an EA/EIS from the DOT, HSF could not have gotten the federal loan guarantee, which was for a pretty substantial amount of money.
What's kind of silly about this whole situation is that if the DOT had abided by the Hawai'i Revised Statutes and not exempted HSF, they wouldn't have this TRO thrown in their faces right now and there wouldn't have been all this pilikia.
And I would rather this whole thing be duked out in court than by protesters getting hurt or arrested in nonviolent demonstrations, but some people feel they have no other recourse, and in this democracy they do have a right to speak their own minds.
Miulang
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